F. Allen Artz, III, has retired and moved to Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in music education from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, studying organ with Carl Shull, and a Master of Arts degree in organ performance from Montclair State University as a student of Jon Gillock. Artz has served several Lutheran and Catholic parishes in Pennsylvania (including St. John’s, Emmaus), and New Jersey, including Newark’s Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart (1993–98), Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, South Orange, and since 2011 at Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church, Plainfield, New Jersey. There he was artistic director for Crescent Concerts and conducted the Crescent Choral Society. His retirement this summer marked 40 years of service as a church musician. Artz also served as director of music at the Far Brook School in Short Hills, New Jersey, until his retirement this June.
As a recitalist, he has performed in several Midwestern and northeastern states and in England and has played Vespers at the Cathedral-Basilica in the presence of Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton. Artz founded and directed the “South Mountain Chorale,” a choral ensemble of 21 singers, which specialized in mostly a cappella music of the Renaissance. He reactivated this ensemble in 2008, renamed as the “Carrollton Chorale.”
